The Tate Gallery is offering a new service for art lovers, art haters and protestors. For a fee of £400,000 (+VAT) you can throw food, paint, excrement or whatever you like, at an art work of your choice. There will be a discount for regular bookings and a pay-by-instalments plan will be available. The gallery will arrange everything for you, including a live stream of the performance, if required.
A spokesman said, 'We are seeking to manage art protestors in a more proactive way. These arrangements will avoid schedule clashes between protest groups, and we will ensure that damage to the artworks is minimised. The Tate will also benefit if the protest increases the value of the art work. A defaced work of art could easily win the Turner Prize, for example. And the fees will help us to protect our collection and acquire new work. And the publicity is always useful.
'One important reason for introducing the new service, and the new fee, is that it will enable us to recover damages from art protestors who haven't paid. We will argue in court that any unauthorised protest deprives us of the fee, and we will take aggressive action to recover it. If this puts off protestors, or sends them elsewhere, then so be it.
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